Page 85 of A Duke's Keeper
Diana
Correspondence between The Lady Charlotte Louis and Miss Diana Yamsbee: Two months, three weeks after she ran.
Dear Diana,
You never need apologize for your grief. I will not pry and ask for specifics but know when I lost both my parents tragically when I was ten, it took months for me to speak. I was so distraught and ill. Even after I’d regained my strength and started talking, I thought I’d never smile again. There was so much sadness in me, so much confusion.
That said, you have every right to suffer in silence if that is your wish, but you are not alone. Grief makeslonely souls of us all, but know you have but to ask and I will fetch the carriage and ride to you straight away. No questions asked.
Please be kind to yourself, dear friend.
Here and waiting,
Charlotte
Letter unsent by Renard Louis, the Duke of Lux.
My Milly,
Every day, I search for you in the crowds across London, and every night, I stumble my way through the rookeries wishing for a glimpse of your red hair or the scent of flowers on your skin. I’m living a half existence without you.
Iwillfind you.
I have nothing else.
Yours always,
Renard
Correspondence between The Lady Charlotte Louis and Miss Diana Yamsbee: Many months and letters later.
Dear Charlotte,
I couldn’t believe your last letter. You are at last coming to London! It’s hard to imagine that overprotective brother you mentioned allowing you anywhere near the city. Beware, my friend. I suspect wedding bells are ringing in a particular duke’s ear.
If your brother has come to the idea of matrimony on your behalf, make sure to have some fun first. You’re always talking about finding an adventure and I would be remiss in my duties as a terrible influence if I didn’tinform you that I have lists of eligible bachelors who are known around town as the worst kind of rakes and very discreet. The Duke of Hurstfield’s name being at the top.
Your friend and conspirator,
Diana Yamsbee
Correspondence between The Lady Charlotte Louis and Miss Diana Yamsbee: Thirteen months since she ran.
Dear Diana,
The duke and I have been married for less than two months and have finally settled into life at Camine Manor. After so many years of loneliness stuck at Lux estate, I thought the quiet would weigh on me returning to the country, but there was no need for concern. Between my darling husband and his delightfully combative sister, Miss Forthright, I feel like one big, ridiculously happy family. My dearest sister-in-law made a quip the other day about how a man’s brain lay in his pants and not under his top hat. I nearly lost my tea through my nose when I heard.
You and Miss Forthright would be fast friends should the occasion ever arrive for us all to meet, I am sure. Your humor is much alike.
Hoping, at last, we may finally meet face to face,
Charlotte
Camille smiled down at Charlotte’s letter from where she read by the light from Camine Manor’s front window. The letter had traveled in a merry back and forth game from country to London, through multiple establishments in the rookeries, to her brother’s city townhouse and back, arriving not ten minutesago by postman. Even after all these months, Madam had kept her word to intercept Camille’s letters from her friend.
Folding the letter, Camille looked out at her brother’s well-maintained lawn, watching the moonlight cast the flowering bushes planted along the drive in stark shadows.
The past year had brought many changes in her life, including the recent marriage between Charlotte and Camille’s brother, Hamish, the Duke of Hurstfield. The two women had grown close as sisters since they’d all started living together, but even now, Camille couldn’t bring herself to reveal her alias as the fictitious Miss Diana Yamsbee.
